The New Lectionary - I

Rorate Caeli (Recollections of a Vatican II Peritus, translation) ^ | Latin Mass Magazine, 1999 | Cardinal Stickler (English translation by Thomas E. Woods)

[Frank Sheed]

Saturday, July 28, 2007

The New Lectionary - I

In the Conciliar Constitution [on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium], the introduction of a three-year Lectionary is nowhere spoken of. Through it the reform commission made itself guilty of a crime against nature. A simple calendar year would have been sufficient for all wishes of change. The Consilium [ad exsequendam Constitutionem de Sacra Liturgia] could have stuck to a yearly cycle, enriching the readings with as many and as varied a choice of collection as one would want without breaking up the natural yearly course.

Instead, the old order of readings was destroyed and a new one introduced, with a great burden and expense of books, in which as many texts as possible could be accommodated, not only from the world of the Church but also-as was widely practiced-from the profane world. Apart from the pastoral difficulties for parishioners' understanding of texts demanding special exegesis, it turned out also as an opportunity -which was seized- to manipulate the retained texts in order to introduce new truths in place of the old. Pastorally unpopular passages-often of fundamental theological and moral significance-were simply eliminated.

A classic example is the text from 1 Cor. 11:27-29 ["Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord."] Here, in the narrative of the institution of the Eucharist, the serious concluding exhortation about the grave consequences of unworthy reception has been consistently left out, even on the Feast of Corpus Christi. The pastoral necessity of that text in the face of today's mass reception without confession and without reverence is obvious.

That blunders could be made in the new readings, above all in the choice of their introductory and concluding words, is exemplified by Klaus Gamber's note on the end of the reading on the first Sunday in Lent of the Reading Cycle for Year A, which speaks of the consequences of Original Sin: "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked." Whereupon the people, performing their duty of lively and active participation, must answer: "Thanks be to God."

Cardinal Stickler
Recollections of a Vatican II Peritus
__________________________
English translation by Thomas E. Woods
(The Latin Mass Magazine, Winter 1999)

posted by New Catholic at 4:01 PM  

[Frank Sheed]

Interesting comments on the current Lectionary... I think NYer posted something along these lines from Diogenes of CWNews.

[Frank Sheed]

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[AnAmericanMother]

LOL!

Deo gracias!
Adam lay i-bounden,
bounden in a bond
Four thousand winter
thought he not to long.

Deo gracias!
And all was for an appil,
an appil that he tok,
As clerkes finden
written in their book.

Deo gracias!
Ne had the appil take ben,
The appil take ben,
Ne hadde never our lady
a ben hevene quene.

Blessed be the time
That appil take was.
Therefore we moun singen
Deo gracias!

[maryz]

He's exactly right, I think, about squeezing the three-year cycle into the one-year liturgical year!

The other reservation(?) I have about the OT readings is that, while Psalms can stand alone, the historical readings really need some commentary, and the homily is almost always on the Gospel (as is fitting). When I was in grammar school, we did study a bit of "Bible history" and our 9th grade religion books had a excellent chapter on types and figures (I just got in under the wire -- my sister at the same school two years behind me, had some gawdawful ephemera called "High Times" or some such rather than actual religion textbooks). Plus, I was an English major and graduate student (there's lots of religious literature -- I mean actual literature on religious themes), and I've had 10 years of Hebrew, much of it on Midrash, which is Bible commentary. And I could use more guidance here!

I really think that, without some kind of commentary on the OT historical readings, they're not nearly the boon some consider them. JMO.

[AnAmericanMother]

'Course, if you have a rector who's a canon lawyer and likes OT theology, you always get a homily that ties the OT reading in to the NT reading.

We're very fortunate to have Monsignor around, his homilies are a bit on the dry side for some but packed with useful information and insights.

And for those who like a rip-roaring homily with everything but an altar call, or a mystical meditation on the Lives of the Saints, we have two parochial vicars who handle that!

[maryz]

Awww -- you guys have all the luck! We just get plain old homilies on the Gospel! LOL! No, actually, they're usually OK, but seldom any reference to the OT readings and the occasional (at least not every week) unfortunate flyer into being "relevant" and tying in some current event or trend -- the latter exemplifying the type of sermon C.S. Lewis said served only to show what newspaper is taken at the rectory. Unfortunately, that would seem to be the Boston Globe . . . :(

[Andrew Byler]

The other reservation(?) I have about the OT readings is that, while Psalms can stand alone, the historical readings really need some commentary

The Lutheran 1958 Hymnal has the traditional Catholic order of readings and the traditional Catholic chants from the gradual, and a set of congruent Old Testament readings added on that fit in with the general theme of the Sunday's.

Its not as though this is some imposisble task that no one in the Church could figure out in 1963. How hard is it to do something like adding Tobit 8 ("Then Tobias exhorted the virgin") to the Wedding Mass, or Job 19 ("I know that my redeemer lives") to the Mass of the Dead?

[AnAmericanMother]

LOL! Love C.S. Lewis, he hit it off in one with that comment.

Last Sunday, Monsignor tied together the dialogue between Abraham and God in the OT reading, as a type of prayer, with Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray. He talked about types of prayer, about the old Catechism mnemonic "ACTS" - Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication - and how the Lord's Prayer typifies each. It was really pretty neat. . . I even remembered it!

[maryz]

Excellent! You know, back in the 19th century, in Boston (I learned in a grad course on American Puritanism) reporters used to haunt the fashionable churches on Sunday morning to snag copies of the sermons immediately after services to be printed in the newspapers (I think even the Boston Globe). (Well, times change!) Your pastor’s sermons sound deserving of that kind of treatment! :)

[AnAmericanMother]

I have my grandfather-in-law's copy of "Sermons from Plymouth Pulpit" (He was a Methodist minister.) Them were the days . . .

All you'd need is somebody who can take shorthand to copy down Monsignor. He speaks very clearly, albeit with a heavy Irish accent!

My daughter just finished a course on American Utopias -- which of course included the Pilgrim Fathers as well as the Great Awakening, the Oneida community, the Suffragists, the Mormons, the Abolitionists, and a bunch of visionaries, utopians, cranks, and just plain moonbats. Interesting!

[maryz]

We covered a lot of your daughter’s course in American Puritanism — the professor took an “expansive” view of Puritanism all the way up to Emily Dickinson!